Transcripts For CSPAN2 Articles Of Impeachment House Hearings Day 1 House Judiciary Debates... 20240713

To declare recess at any time perce went to the Committee Rule number two the chair will respond to the proceeding on the question of approving any measure or matter and adopting an amendment for which the recorded vote. Today we need to begin consideration of articles of impeachment the statement to the chair and Ranking Member of the committee and i believe for such an important and solemn occasion as this it would be appropriate to have an opportunity to make Opening Statements. Before we begin, i want to note theop absence i understand they will join me in wishing him a speedy recovery and i now recognize myself for an Opening Statement. Today we begin the consideration against donald trump. The first article charges the president used the powers of the Public Office to demand a Foreign Government attacked his political rivals and the second charges that the president obstructed the congressional investigations into misconduct and others have resisted congressional oversight on the stone wall is complete, absolute and without precedent in american history. Taken together, the two articles are placing the private political interest above the National Security, above the free and Fair Elections and the ability to hold Public Officials accountable. Toeo describe the factual basis meaning and importance, i believe three questions should frame the debate. First, does the evidence showed clearly thashowsclearly that tht committed these acts . Do they rise to the high crimes and misdemeanors in the third are the consequences for the National Security with the integrity of election if we fail to act there can be no serious debate about what President Trump did. July 25 of this year when he spoke to president zelensky of ukraine by telephone, President Trump had the upper hand. Ukraine had been invaded by russia and he had only been recently elected and badly needed our help. He needed it in the form of military aid already appropriated by congress because of our National Security interests in ukraine. He needed help in the form of an Oval Office Meeting to showau te world the United States stands with him against russian aggression. President trump should have focused on americas National Security and the interest of the American People on that call instead he completely ignored them to push his own personal political interest. He wanted ukraine to announce the two focused investigations, one to former viced president e biden the leading opponent to the 2020 election and the other to advance Conspiracy Theory that ukraine, not russia, attacked the elections in 2016. These were not legitimate requests and either was supported by the evidence. One was to help President Trump conceal the truth about the 2016 election. The other was designed to help them gain an advantage in the 2020 campaign. Both were divorced from reality in official u. S. Policy. The evidence proves these requests were not related to any real interest in ruling out. Orruption President Trump does business with corrupt governments every day. The evidence shows President Trump did not care if the investigations took place. The public announcement that the government of ukraine was investigating his rivals would have been enough for him to release the aid. Whether or not an actual investigation ever took place. After the call they withheld the dollars to military aid and his lawyer traveled to pressure the ukrainians directly to. By september. To open the inquiry into the actions they did everything in their power to obstruct the investigation they declare acrosstheboard resistance. He ordered every official in the federal government to define all subpoenas and the administration also refused to produce a single document related to the inquiry, not one. The answer is simple. The president ca president can d for high crime misdemeanors the highest of high crimes is the abuse of power. Reey support the own personal sophism trysts at the expense of the public good. It was specific, welldefined and the first article charges President Trump with abuse of power. They layout to aggregating factors that weus must consider pressuring for a personal favor and attempting to corrupt the elections. The domestic political rivals andd corrupt or elections. Free and Fair Elections are the of our democracy and if the elections are corrupt, everything is corrupt. For the ongoinwith the ongoing o obstruct the investigation we have never seen a president categorically defined congress. Congress cannot fulfill its duty to act as the check and balance. Later tonight youll hear more about both articles and how they describe a pattern of behavior tot they seem determined repeat. But it again the colleagues also address what has been raised in the president s defense. If theres one of those objections i wish to address right away some asked, why not take more time. Why is this necessary now . Why not let the next election handle it. What is the risk if we do not actt one indisputable truth has emerged and if we do not respond to President Trumps abuses of power, the abuse will continue. We cannot rely on the election to solve our problems or they threaten the very integrity of the election nor can we sit on our hands whilele the president undermines the National Security and while he allows the personal interest and interest of our adversaries to advance. The personal lawyer was in ukraine again just last week. That wasnt three years ago or three months ago. S it was saturday. This jeopardizes our security and elections. The threat is urgent. If we do not act now, what will be our responsibility as well as his. I will close with the words of my republicanha colleagues. I know you and ive worked with many of you for years and i consider you to be good and decent Public Servants. This moment may be difficult, but you still haver a choice. I hope every member of the committee who will stand in the political pressures of the moment. Hope that none of us will justify behavior that we know in t. R heart is wrong. I hope we are able to Work Together to hold this president or any president accountable for breaking the most basic obligations to the country and to the citizens. Please keep in mind that one way or another, President Trump will not be president forever. When his time is past, when his grip on politics has gone into the country returns and surely it will with stronger leadership, history will look back on the actions here today how would you be remembered. Weve each taken an oath to support and defend the constitution against all enemies, bothho foreign and domestic. I hope to be remembered for honoring that oath and i hope you feel the same. I support these articles of impeachment and i urge my colleagues to support them as well. I will yield back the balance of my time and i will now recognize the distinguished Ranking Member ofyi the Judiciary Committee gentleman from georgia for his Opening Statements. We have been trying this. The only thing that has changed is the opportunity from last november when you became the majority. The only thingt thats changed t your desire to impeach this president is that you became the majority and we have spent all year in this committee trying to impeach the president. We occasionally have markups on bills most of which are so partisan they cant even go forward in the senate and most of which do not address any issue weve talked about but its amazing we are taking it with such a solemn oath weve made up something to come to this point to say this is very solemn like it snuck up on you. It doesnt sneak up on you when you have been expecting at the whole time and that is what we haven been doing. What has been amazing to me is some things we have seen, so lets take a perspective here for a while. What has our committee come to, that is the question lets take it for a moment inside his impeachment. This is our third. That is all we are having. When do we get out of those hearings . We had a bunch of professors three of which cannot stand the president or his voters or the fact that hes still in office and the differences were okay. We had a hearing just two days ago lecturing us on whats called iboth talibanand whats y found, he hit i hid it in his ct somewhere or office not wanting to face the questions of the committee. That should be a poor to everyone here. Again, chairman schiff is nowhere to be found. We understand this and we look forward. Tonight its started again. We talk about tearing down the National Institution and putting our security at risk when tonight even the Opening Statement we start with one of the most amazing takedowns i have ever seen when they cant make their argument that the president pressured mr. Zelensky, they then attacked and say that he was pressured. Herehere is what the majority s saying. When we cant make our case we not only try to tear down the leader of the free world, President Trump, but we are tearing down the newly elected leader of ukraine. This is amazing to me. You cant make your case against the president because Nothing Happened and what he confirmed that Nothing Happened, we started tearing him down. We never thought we would cross to try to basically impugn the integrity of the world leader like we have been for the last two. We also found other things that we found in our very minimal hearings here in this body. And the Ranking Members and others including members of the press that are here tonight putting phone records and company name. You talk about getting even. We put names on those numbers that we lucked out and nobody would own up to it. Who would have u said to do that when they could have put inn the record congressman one, congressman two, reporter juan, no, they got what they wanted. Thats the record being built in the Judiciary Committee cannot effect against the president committed the record of a Democratic Party that lost all fairness and good democratic faith. Thats what we are seeing here. We can have all the statements we want, but they cannot get away from the fact. What is the way tha light that g perpetrated . One of the democrats told the American People theyve said this for three years, the lie that we are hearing perpetrated is the end justifies the means, it is okay because it is so real and urgent and imminent. Their political expediency is justifiable in history has shown to be untrue and dangerous. The lie is that adam schiff gained evidence in plain sight and scent coding with russia and the special counsels report when the lie continues to spread like a cancer every time we hear it. The evidence is overwhelming and the facts arehe undisputed the very fact that people in the committee disputed fact make the undisputed facts, not undisputed. Th the fact when it gets to the articles themselves, abuse of power, when you look at the articles and compare them to history, im glad the chairman of the history because it will be written for us at a later time because they will not always be the majority as he talks about. There will be a turnover and this is the article that we wrote and we get abuse of power its just generic statements. Its because the democrats cant come up with an argument for it. They do not have to to do it and when did they know it. Theres your abuse of power. Its about political expediencyy as much as anything els else and that should never be an article of impeachment. Anybody that defends that is on very thin ice and obstruction. The only thing that we have seen here is from this investigation. He didnt turn over the documents he was supposed to. We get this last saturday after we already hold hearings and afterr we already got ready for another hearing in which we are supposed to lay out the reports coming into tonight he sends a letter of classified information over to us tonight. Dont think for a second of the American Public that this fojority wants you to find the truth. The obstruction has only occurred with the majority keeping people from actually trying to find the truth. Thats the only obstruction so why dont we just have to but it would be against the majority, notee the president. Abuse of power and obstruction of congress and the only abuse of power here is the majority racing the fastest they ever have and the clock on the calendar determining what the impeachment looks like. That is the excuse of power. Before i finish, the legacy of the impeachment hearing will not be the removal of donald trump as president. In fact if anything it is for what they are on a threeyear data against anyone and they are desperate before next year. Heres the damage, the institutional damage to this body if the institutional damage to getting information after the hearing started from not having the rules followed, from having this committee as the chairman warned us about 20 years ago when he said the committee should never accept a report from someone else without verifying and having them unless we become a rubber stamp. I dont know about you but im not a rubber stamp and i dont like what ive been forced to do in a staff telling us. We are the rubber stamp of the worst kind because we didnt even try to make the point. The minority hearing date which by the way, we will talk about this more into the rules committee will take care of it. They will be crying and screaming for the minority rights and i would just point back to 2019 and say this is the year you put a dagger in the minority rights. Tonight weve experienced here in december after a year of trashing this institution, a year of trying to trash this administration we come up with abuse of power and cant define it, we come up with obstruction of congress after 72 days. I know they are desperate. Thats the wrong reason to impeach somebody into the American People are seeing through this. At the end of the day my heart breaks for the committee that has trashed this institution and this is where we are now and with that i will yield back. We will now proceed with fiveminute Opening Statements with other members of the committee. I now recognize the gentle lady from california for five minutes. A serious moment for the country i worked on president ial impeachment and the third time brings me no joy. Weve taken an oath to uphold the constitution and the president violates the Constitutional Order we have an obligation to our oath of office to deal with that. The committee cant direct evidenccut directevidence abouts actions to threaten the National Security undermining the integrity of the last end of the violation of its growth. As a staff member to my predecessor, congressman don edwards, ive watched this opening in the nixon impeachment, and it rings true today. He said the value and beauty of the constitution and Representative Government is going to work with those we all respect in the constitution. It is a contact we have with each other. Put simply no one is above the law and the president of the unitepresident of theunited stae constitution. One of my most vivid memories is about one of the most vigorous defenders when he realized nixon lied to him. Ive been waiting for the republican members here to have their moments, but it seems like we live in an alternate reality where as one columnist recently said it fixed when us and . Ikeda, its a piano. Its understandable that republicans feel a loyalty to their party. I cannot turn away from m the evidence. President trump continues this misconduct of enforcing the High Standard where are the cold whereabouts were acalledwhereabd the Republican Party. What is before us is a serious arabuse of power on the battlefield, in the courts come in the congress, the founders included the impeachment clause in the constitution purposefully and theyd, Gave Congress the authority to impeachh for a reason from the president who would abuse the power to offend the Constitutional Order and threatened the democracy faced with the need to impeach President Trump for his abuse of power into the future of our democracy and Constitutional Order require it and i yield back. I agree with everybody tonight is a solemn night. This is the third time in the last 30 to 40 years that this committee has sa sent to debate articles of impeachment. What we are debating here in my opinion is the weakest case in history and yet the democrats have decided to go full speed ahead again because of the clock and calendar with an incomplete record of simply using hearsayoc evidence and trashing the rules of the house in order to speed things up where did he go with a preordained conclusion and that is a partisan vote for impeachment on something both speaker and chairman othe speake committee rejected earlier when they thought they could make this bipartisan. Lets look at these two articl articles. There is no crime to have been committed by the president of the United States. Policy differences, but i would submit given the definition of bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors that does not mean that policy differences should be enough to remove a president from office. Theres nthere is no allegationf articles were of extortion. They define for themselves what a high crime and misdemeanor will be. The bar is so low and what is happening is a future president can be impeached for any disagreement when the presidency and house of representatives are controlled by different parties and that goes back too establishing aho parliamentary systemth which the framers specifically rejected and at the time of the Constitutional Convention in the United Kingdom or canada or other parliamentary democracies and if the government loses the confidence of the majority, the government is outdated or either is a new government or even action that happened. The framers didnt want that. The president was independently elected and didnt serve at the sufferings of congress. He served for a fixed term and was only if he really obstructed the functions of government or was treasonous. In the past whenever the executive and legislative branches have had a disagreement theyve gone to court. They will not allow the judicial process to work out. The framers of the constitution in light in the decisions. Like england and canada we need an independent president that is not suffering anything the congressional majority that is what the courts have figured o out. During the ratification of the constitution and during the base of thedi convention. Put aside your partisan politics and dont listen to what they are telling you. Constitution begins with we the people of the United States among other things promote the general welfare and establish this constitution for the United Stateses of america. The president of the United States, donald trump perpetrated constitutional crimes. Why does this matter today now in this moment. They have adhered to and have been protected by it is a list of crimes ending slavery, so todayfo my case arrests on truth and trust that is the personal and political interests above the National Interest by scheming to get ukraine to investigate the potential opponent in the second, keep at the National Interest by withholding the congressional predated the security to the beleaguered and besieged allies and the purpose concocted by President Trump they must stand the constitution that has been the foundation of the nation of the century. The truth is thehe only goal violated that oath and promoted the election is the president follows another sacred duty to take care that the law be executed and saved a nation those monies that were needed by ukraine. The bright light of this constitutional democracy is damned because of his acts. The truth is no longer for all of it is for one man, donald trump. We must reject that abuse of power because this is not america. No one is above the law. Guess im told he was still the nation it is a continuing threat to National Security and the truth is it becomes like the leaves on the tree that fall to the ground ang the trust that is a cornerstone of democracy shakes in the government but undermines the democracy over and over again. It is important that we begin to understand that we cannot be stopped by distraction. This must be the time we rise and sacrifice so the wheels of justice turn towards the right and our sacrifice is unselfish. Our truth will set the nation freed for this reason i vote and must vote on the articles of impeachment article one and article two. That is why we stand tonight for americas future. I will yield back. If adopted by the committee the fulfull house and god forbid garners a certain vote vote in the senate would result in the overturning of the president ial electionth we are witnessing the rush to impeach a president t tht is loathed by most of my democratic colleagues and by their supporters for any committee to responsibly consider such materials especially if they are evolving something as important as the impeachment and potential removal if thats not bad enough that report scandalously published the phone records of the president s personal attorney member of the media and member of this body. Under what Legal Authority the phone records were obtained by highth crimes and misdemeanors d they announced the president wouldnt be permitted to present a case in its own defense. It is forbidden under the constitution and the flaunting things off the wall and the majority on the committee has been breathtaking without any factbr witnesses questioning witnesses we have staff questioning staff the republicans on the committee were denied the absolute right to have ag minority hearing they just guaranteed by the committees own rules. They are setting the precedent that they will one day be the victims themselves without any consultation with the party based on what the constitutional scholar called waiver than evidence. We will hold a vote to impeach a president without having heard from a single fact the next what a travesty of justice and in summary over the last few weeks House Democrats have interactively participated in or acquiesced to the drafting of impeachment articles based on the evidence collected in secret hearings, closed in the media and to the American People. Its ridiculously implausible and yetet here we are. Igthey might be cheering you on that i doubt either history or r the American People willch judge youer so leniently and i will yield back. It invests the power of the government and authority of the people and express their free and Fair Elections. Its what the Founding Fathers feared most. This is one of the primary reasons they faced impeachment in the constitution. Excess of the founders could see into 2019 and when they did a basal donald trump corrupting our democracy by saying to president zelensky of ukraine i would like you to dod us a favo. They are an affront to the founders and suffragists who fought for the Voting Rights they are to andrew goodman, james and michael during the freedom summer of 64 way of registering africanamericans to vote. They are an affront to the memory of the mother of five who was murdered by the ku klux klan while in alabama to participate to the montgomery march and an affront to the memory ofa the Martin Luther king championed theit Voting Rights act of 1965 and an affront to every Service Member who at first ever thought for the free and Fair Elections. To subvert was an attack on america. The president got caught when thee whistleblower exposed the president s scheme and sought to over up the scheme. As we pursued the investigation, the instructed the staff, cabinet and other federal officials to do the same. Previous president s facing impeachment even president nixon cooperated with congress but President Trump from his nose at the constitutiona constitutionad refuse to appear to defend himself. Congress is a coequal branch of government and was foremost in the floor debate cofounders mind. A it was first in article one of the constitution. The obstruction of congress is an affront to the chair of the committee and 74 when congress investigated nixons betrayal of his oath of office and its an affront to the memory of the representative Barbara Jordan who as a member said she would not be an idle spectator to the munitions were distraction of the constitution. Its an affront to the memory of congressman Elijah Cummings who knew we were better than this and an affront to the patriots loved the country enough to defy the attempt to prohibit their testimony including ambassador taylor. And the Judiciary Committee in 1974of he doesnt support impeachmenimpeachment he listene evidence and convinced him. He announced he would vote saying we have campaigned against corruption and misconduct that watergate is our shame. The right i and wrong when his mother warned his future would go down the drain, he responded you are probably right, however i feel my loyalty as a Republican Party doesnt really havrelieveme of the obligation. His mother was gone. Representative butler served for another decade and President Trumps obstruction of congress is an affront to citizens of my district, all members of congress and all who support free and Fair Elections. We the people have a duty to uphold the oath of office and to be a check on the president chooses the power abuses the power. Those that want to turn a blind eye try to get us to look away. We should looko away. Shouldnt look away. I will not look away this is truly a sad day for america and a sad week for america. There are people here willing to vote against our president but a funny thing happened. We just got a report from obamas Inspector General and confirms what we had a feeling wahave a feelingwas true but weo wait and hear what the truth was and that is for three years we have heard from people that are now in the majority talk about the crimes of the president. Where are they . They kept saying we will be fair. Comewe tell us about the crimes. Now we have a vague abuse of power, obstruction of congress, the very things the majority has done preventing us from having the witnesses that could shed light on this, not opinion but fact witnesses. Wewe needed to hear from those witnesses, people like ashlawn, chair miller, died in an alexander and so many others. They dont want fact witnesses. Lets hear from professors who hate donald trump, who are willing to sell their education just to make a point against somebody they dont like. This is a dangerous, dangerous time in america. Theyy talk about abuse of powe, but they are willing to obscure evidence in a basement hearing over and over. They are willing to block witnesses from coming in here and testify before congress. They are willing to obtain and publish phone records of people. There is no probable cause. There is no crimes by any of these people, the reminds me a lot of what happened under the Bush Department of justice when we got a report that says there were probably over 3,000 National Security letters sent out on expeditions. I was outraged. Here i am and i was talking with senator schumer who i was outraged like he was. The report said that the abuses coming and i called the white house and i said this is outrageous. The abuses of americans rights, somebodys got to answer from this and we needed a new attorney general and my mistake was not demanding a new director of the fbi because mueller stayed and screwed it up even worse than it had been before. Some of us stand up and call it like it is no matter which administration and now weve heard from horovitz and bar and all three years screaming about lies. At some point, i would think i am a democrat, the report says all these things we said were crimes they didnt happen, they didnt exist. It was all a fabrication. And in fact all four of those should never have been issued and i hope some of my friends across the aisle will finally join me in saying lets either get rid of the fisa court or figure out as way to make them better because they are so abusive andyi they have been. My party didnt want to fix it, their party doesnt want to fix it. It needs to be fixed. Let me just say i came in here and they did not want to get emotional. And ive sat through trials that were hard to sit through but nothing like sitting in this Committee Hearing into what jefferson, i tremble that they will not sleep forever. But the abuses, the obstruction of congress have come from congress. I would have expected donald trump to just say you came after me, my business associates, my family now. Im going back and im going to make billions of dollars, to heck with you but he has hung in there and its amazing. At some point, the majority has got to say, and they probably wont, we are really sorry. There was nothing on which to base all those allegations were crimes and we owe you a d. Apology. Lets see them on the Democratic Party. I yield back. Its been a gentleman yields back. Mr. Johnson. Thank you mr. Chairman. Until the investigation began, i didnt support impeaching President Trump, and i would like to tell you all what changeds my mind. America first. Weve heard those words a lot recently. We havent always agreed on what they mean. But we know this, our founders created an impeachment so that no president could place himself above the law. It gives congress the ability and the responsibility to put America First. I dont take this responsibility lightly. While i didnt vote for President Trump, i respected the office that he holds. I didnt call for impeachment when the president shuts down ourpr government or tried to rip healthcare for those for preexisting conditions or embarrassed us on the world stage were pardoned political cronies or took money from our troops to fund his wall or took babies from their mothers at the border. I didnt call for his impeachment of them, not because i supported this president s actions, i simply felt that impeachment should be preserved for moments when our democracy sitself is in danger. When the signs say in in case of emergency break glass, there better be one heck of an emergency. I didnt call for impeachment before, but i call for it today because this is one heck of an emergency. The facts are clear President Trump undermined americas Foreign Policy to pursue with his own National Security staff called to a domestic political air and. He withheld military aid putting americas National Security at risk in blood but handpicked ambassador called a quid pro q quo. President trump didnt just abuse his power with ukraine, he made them an offer they could not refuse. Help me get reelected or you wont get the assistance you desperately need from the United States of america. And then he tried to cover it fortunately, we the people are not as dumb as President Trump thinks we are. If you break the law and withhold documents, we know its not because those documents make you look at. Maybe thats why more americans support impeachment now than anytime since Richard Nixons final weeks. Or maybe its because the American People understand how much is at stake. President trumps high crimes threaten to democracy itself. I am a black man representing georgia, born when jim crow was alive and well. To me the idea that election can be undermined if not theoretic theoretical. I have constituents who remember what its like to live in a democracy in name only and they can tell you what its like when powerful men undermine free and Fair Elections. They know our democratic process is fragile. We are here because President Trumps tried to sabotage that process. He didnt want to let the voters decide. He decided to cheat in the upcoming election and he got caught. But we remind my colleagues there is no such thing as attempted cheating. If a child copies off a test and a teacher catches them in the act,t, its not okay just becaue the child didnt get away with it. The cheater got caught and President Trump got caught. We know there was a conspiracy, a cry in the end they cover up. Theres only one thing wewe dont know, what will congress do about it. While we hold the president accountable or will be served as his accomplices . We are not voting on whether President Trump should remain in office. That is the senates job. Our job today is simply to decide whether the president crossed a line. If you truly believed president e President Trumps behavior was acceptable, then by all means, give him the green light to undermine our democracy again. But if you know what the American People know, that this moment is different and our very republic is at stake, then its not too late, put the wall of the president , put your oath about your political ambition, but the country we all love above the interest of just one man. Put America First. Put America First. Didnt tell the court they were desperate to top job or that they were working for the Clinton Campaign or did not tell the court the guy that will have brought wrote the dossier was fired for linking to the press and they continue the investigation after the election on january 1t 2017, senator schumer said this if you mess in the Intelligence Communitytiheer thy will get back at you it took all of three days for that statement to come true. January 6, trump tower jim call me president elect trump on the dossier that the fbi already knew was false so they could leak it to the press and they would write about thehe fact the present was told he wasnt under investigation when they were investigating him andab of course they continue their investigation after the inauguration. He said after tenin minutes of the fbi investigation comey gets fired may 9, 2178 days later bob mueller is hired and we get two years of the mueller investigation. Nineteen lawyers, 400 warrants 2800 subpoenas but zero collusion. The democrats dont care about tthe facts and they will never stop. Whistleblowers lawyer said ten days after the president was swornt in they started the impeachment 16 democrats voted to move forward with impeachment before bob miller ever sat before this committee before the president ever had a call. They will never stop with their attacks because they cant stand the factet that trump is draining swamp and doing what he said he would do, most importantly getting results. Texas cut, regulations reduce, economy growing , lowest employment 50 years, kavanaugh on the court, out if i ran deal, hostages in jerusalem dash south korea and New Jerusalem and they cannot stand a new nafta coming any day and they will stop. Not just because it like the president they dont like us. Didnt like the 63 Million People who voted for this president. All of us in flyover countr country, common full can ohio, wisconsin and tennessee in texas. They dont like us. What about colin said last week sitting right there the democratic professor who told us what she believed liberals cluster conservative spread out because they dont want to be around themselves. How about our colleague Maxine Waters clicks june 2018 if you see anybody in a restaurant or Department Store or gas station you get out and create a crowd and push back can you tell them they are not welcomemt anymore, anywhere. That is scary. Peter struck who ran the clinton investigation and the trump investigation the head of counterintelligence was fired when he went to the southern virginia walmart i can smell the trump support. They dont like it. Thats what this is about the like the president or his supporters and they are willing to weaponize the government. A few years ago was the irs then the fbi now the impeachment power of Congress Going after 63 Million People in the guy we put in the white house and release the phone records of the members of the press and the republican member of congress this is scary stuff. Is not healthy for a country and when the Mueller Report first came out it would be well to remember that what could be done to the president could be done to each of us. I hope you will reconsider and stop it while you can. I yelled back. Ring about the impact of the president s attacks against our democracy how its felt by our kids and my kids a Younger Generation that is just beginning to vote thats just beginning to lead so i asked my kids on a family group tex text, what they thought at this moment and they responded almost immediately and they told me what they were feeling and what their friends were feeling. And they confirmed the worst. The faith and their democracy is shaken. One of my kids said trump has made me feel to take away americas common sense and if the democracy is fragile enough to be manipulated by the president then i worry for our future as a country. Why is our democracy so fragile clicks the president smears the press as the enemy of the people he takes verifiable facts and calls of fake news and attacks his opponents in the most hateful way and degrades diplomats and lashes out at Law Enforcement questioning the patriotism of those on the battlefield. Questioning americas leadership in the world russia over our Intelligence Community over our natoer allies over ukraine. All of these longheld positions of leadership in the world they are all a part of the next election but we are hire at this moment to protect that election. The president s ongoing attacks of the 2020 elections and the effort to cover it up is why we are here tonight the president s abuse of power to cheat americas voters and threaten National Security he welcomed russian interference in the 2016 election and solicited interference by ukraine and china and the 2020 election the ongoing pattern of this president use of power is obstruction of investigationn refusing to turn over even one document. Thats what requires us to act now. This is a moment that the president has forced upon us. These are the high crimes that violate the supreme law of our nation. The constitution of the United States. When my kids were younger we taught them to tell the truth we all teacher kids to tell the truth if you have nothing to hide honesty is the clearest path to put that behind you. You know thats true everybody does. If the president had not abused his power if everything did was truly perfect he would have demanded everyone that worked for him comes forward to tell the truth. Let them speak. Let them all speak. Instead of ordering his staff to tell the truth, he silenced them. What message does that send the next generation of American Voters . Of american leaders . We cannot allow our children to believe the power by the strongest leader in our country is acceptableow for normal. Yesterday my daughter sent another text and says it feels like we are losing the battle to get people to care about democracy. Im worried we will not be able to fix it. President trumps violation of ourm democracy impeachment as removal from office is the only way to fix it. I yield back. Point of order. We started this proceeding tonight and we on the Minority Side do not have the current amendment of a tri 755 because theha one we have says abuse of power article one and the other is at the direction of congress and we hear about crimes we should have the amendment. That is not a point of order. Thank you mister chairman. Howell history judge this impeachment . I believe the American People will remember this effort unkindly democrats have been resisting and looking for an excuse since the day he was elected there were false charges that pro trump russians shut down the power grids in vermont many Voting Machines were rigged in three states 50 House Democrats boy potted the president swearing inma ceremony including the chairman of this committee. Running an article entitled the campaign to them peach President Trump has begun on january 172017 strangely enough the article was posted at 12 19 p. M. All the inaugural ceremonies were still happening the aclu executive director stated we think the president is in violation of the constitution and federal statutes on day one and the assassination personal harm for the model of his severedci head and Robert De Niro said his tony award speech to say f trump. Like to punch him in the face. And then the emoluments clause in the call to remove President Trump under the 25th amendment due to insanity. Then the holdover appointees began to run rip shot on the constitution from within the administration. March 21st 2017 representative Maxine Waters said get ready for impeachment and i may 16 representatives from this committee or a representative became the second member of the house and brad sherman and al green talked about the impeachment resolution for obstruction of justice in russian representative and the Ranking Member of the subcommittee of Civil Justice introduced five articles of impeachment against President Trump in november 2017. One representative said we will impeach the blank during a january 3rd swearing in ceremony. May 62019 representative al green said im concerned if we dont impeach this president he will get reelected. Democrats could not let go of the russian collusion story even after Robert Mueller stated in his report that from campaign did not coordinate with russia. In fact when representative greene forced to vote 95 colleagues of ours voted in favor to proceeding to impeachment on july 17, 16 of our democratic colleagues on this committee voted for that. It is clear my democratic colleagues have prejudged the space ignoring the president s right toe executive privilege ejasserting to determine the bounds will take too long to serve justice the American People democrats are so righteous that president must be impeached that they ignoreto the plain facts the professor was right when he said this impeachment will be the shortest investigation producing the thinnest record of wrongdoing from the narrowest impeachment and history. At the end of the day invoking the words of my colleague representative hastings who said during one debate that thee majoritys efforts would backfire this will cost to the majority and some of you will not be here in the next congress i hope you had your fun. I told my colleagues, go ahead, vote to engage President Trump tomorrow but when you walk out of this hearing room call your freshman colleagues to tell them youre not comingint back you hope they had their fun say goodbye to your majority c status and please join us in january 2021 when President Trump isse inaugurated again. I yield back to make mister chairman this is a sad day in us history when we have to vote on articles of impeachment. Because donald trump has abused the power of the office of the presidency in his attempt to cheat his way toec election this evening we will begin the process President Trump directed military aid approved by congress to the allies publicly announcing investigation of his top policy in the upcoming election. Fortunately he was caught in the act for those who took the report and military reese assistance was released during those eight weeks he withheld aid at least 13 ukrainians died in the field. I know ukraine is far away it might be difficult to imagine how and why this country shouldnt be any concern to us here. In partwa it is us honoring our commitments but it is more than that. When countries are not stable they can collapse be taken over by governments that are hostile to the United States or breeding ground for terrorist organizations compromisingn our National Security for personal gain and military assistance was withheld that left the country vulnerablewh to those that already invaded the territory. I regularly meet with had to stay and i have to apologize for some embarrassing statements the president has made. Since the scandal i have faced questions from leaders around the world what is going on . Where does the us stand in regard toke past commitments is an anomaly . Hasnt been weekend or corrupted . The world is watching how we handle this crisis those at after decades and looking to the United States we emphasize the importance of rule of law with free and fair and Transparent Elections members of congress have to acknowledge and restrict or limit the right to vote to challenge our government reassess they fight corruption and abuse to encourage people to cometr forward to ensure that they do and remain anonymous congressional delegations come and go that live and work around thehe world from usaid what message does it send in the attempt to the have the indignity of those patriots to expose the abuse of power what hamessage does it send he has compromise their ability to fight for democracy and why the president threatens National Security they shall demonstrate their loyalty to the president while off the recordsh acknowledging his wrongdoing people from around the world understand this they know they step out of line they may lose the election and it has forbidden everybody from cooperating even when subpoena. This is not a clue it is irresponsible to label it is the responsibility of this committee to follow the constitution. Waiting to see if we would hold ourselves to the democratic principles if we demonstrate our ability to hold the leaders accountable how to show it democracy handles the crisis in that it remains strong and the president is the anomaly and no one is above the law and this is what we must adopt articles of impeachment to takeor the first step in the presidency. I yield back i thank you chair. Article one section two gives the house of representatives the sole power of impeachmentrt it authorizes impeachment only on treason or bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors that is the express criteria and the only constitutional upon. Marking up to articles of impeachment use of power and obstruction of congress and nowhere does the constitution mention either one. Neither omits the criteria of the founders or sustained at the basis of impeachment which explains why two members of congress approach me on the floor yesterday to ask what obstruction of congress means because they have never heard of it before. We are marking up articles of impeachment that some members of congress have never heard of before much less know what it means. Democrats keep repeating over and over the president is not above the law. I have said it before. The president is not above the law but he should not be below it either and i said it before because democrats have tried thisis before during the molar hearing democrats repeatedly and emphatically unequivocally that donald trump must be impeached for obstruction of justice until they heard that obstruction of justice analysis under oneofakind never before used by the department of justice legal etandard that perverted a presumption of innocence to a presumption of guilt now the democrats take it one step further instead of creating legal standards out of thin air they create Impeachable Offenses out of thin air whatever happened to quid pro quo and extortion and bribery cracks they have been telling us it is clear the facts are undisputed the evidence was overwhelming except it wasnt any of those and now its all gone they reached into the grab bag of the abuse of power accusations that legal scholars admit is not a crime and now instructed congress into thequ alleged quid pro quo you cannot make this stuff up but it is all made up but you all move fast. I have to hand it to my colleagues. And get away with it. He is shooting holes in our constitution of pennsylvania avenue. We cannot let him get away it. The constitution was written and signed over 232 years ago and since then we have elected 45 president seo and all that time only four occasions has the house of representatives considered articles of impeachment. So i do not take this lightly prickly take it seriously. I take it very very seriously. I have heard republican say why are we rushing to judgment . This is not a rush to judgment it is a rush to justice. We must not delay. Corruption is corrosive and eats away at like acid the more we wait with the more time we allow the president do irreparable damage to our democracy. Just last week the president s crony giuliani was back at it in ukraine. Ukraine. Continuing to create new conspiracy theories. So please dont tell us to wait because the corruption continues. And in trying times like this many people in this room look for guidance in scripture. Look no further than the story of esther. And then to announce a bogus investigation against the very person beating them in thea polls you dont need Sherlock Holmes to figure this one out. We have the evidence in the transcript of the call and a crystalclear confession his chief of staff coconspirator admitted to in the white house testimony from state Department Witnesses and confessions and witnesses and video everything but dna what else do you need . You needd the courage of esther the present doesnt have the power to lie or obstruct or our democracy or threaten National Security. No question the president has abused his power and to look the other way just to say its politics or to tell other nations about the rule of law what we say about our democracyna if we go take care the bully at the bully pulpit during the darkest days of the revolution thomas paine wrote these are the times that try mens souls this enzyme sunshine patriot will shrink from the service of their country fighting what is comfortable as easy running and hiding is easy how do you want to be remembered during this watershed moment in our nations history i ask a republican colleagues. We allowed your legacy to be tied to his actions . Tied to his actions . Stand with presidend. The time has come to bee winter soldier, the time has come and with that i yield back. K. I have made clear how woefully incomplete process has come. Hell no witnesses were called before us to have staff get the truth. No matter what any member on this side of this here tonight, the majority will unanimously voted to send these articles to the house floor. However we have a duty to continue to point out how flawed the process has gotten. All members of congress are required to take an oath of office at the beginning of every congress. By taking this oath, we spirit above all else to defend the constitution of the United States. I have the distinct honor to represent hardworking people in southeast alabama. Theyve placed their trust in me to represent their values and to be their voice here in congress. This stands as a guiding principle for every decision i make is a member of congress. For the record, let me be clear, i believe in the rule of law and no person is above the law. I believe the process is vital to this very institution. Ive stated time and time again before the Committee Process matters. Without abiding by the framework that adheres to the constitution, we are charging a course that does not follow the countrys founding principles. Whether you identify as republicans, democrat or independent, whether you agree or disagree with the president s policies, whether you like or even dislike the president the American People should feel cheated by what has taken place here. We sit here tonight without all the facts to the case because the majority decided to conduct an incomplete and inadequate pursuit of the truth. Many questions remain. With the consequential decision of impeaching a president , it is our right and our duty to the citizens of this country to properly use the powers of congressional oversight to adjudicate the impass impasses h the court and arrive at actual undisputed facts of the case that all americans regardless of ideology can agree are truthful and honest. Impeachment proceedings of president nixon the facts were undefeated. In the impeachment proceedings of president clinton, the underlining facts would also undisputed. Here before us tonight, that is not the case. The articles of impeachment before us in this committee do not meet the necessary requirements nor have they followed an exhaustive pursuit to even find outtt all of the facts of the case. Therefore, the bar to impeach a sitting president of the United States has not been met. For the sake of our country, and for the future trajectory of this body, i import my colleagues to take a hard look at the course of this investigation. It has severely discounted the tenets of our democratic system. Tomorrow we write history. A history that cannot be undone. Ac dangerous precedent will be set for future majorities of this body. The American People deserve a process that put politics aside. The American People deserve a process that is led by our promise to protect and defend the constitution. The American People simply deserve better. With that i would like to yield of the remainder of my time to mr. Collins. Thank you. Imy just want to review, we aren a situation we can make up the facts. One thing that needs to be refuted the idea that lives were lost during [inaudible] both were prospective in this vital page 85 pieces bear this in mind. This isnt to keep the army goinarmy tothe outcome is to hee future. So to me the facts on primetime to see peoples lives were lost is categorically wrong and we actually had a chance to get the lessons of the testimony we would see that in the testimony of the undersecretary as we go forward. Again it is amazingte to me some of the people say you dont attack the substance. We do. Its easy we are attacking the fact that theres no way for us to even talk about this because the process has been such a rushed process but that is something that just isnt right to say and when no one else can check it and he said that was ones perspective, not now im off onot on the money that wasnt theirs so i went yield back. The gentleman yield spec. George washington in his farewell address to the Nation Council of america the constitution is sacredly obligatory upon all. It is in that spirit that we proceed today. The impeachment of a president is a solemn responsibility that we undertake carefully. Scripture says in the book of solomon, for the lord loves justice and will not abandon his faithful ones. We undertake this responsibility prayerfully. We do not take this step to divide though some will argue that the impeachment of this president will further divide an already fractured union. There is a difference between division and clarification. Slavery once divided the nation, that emancipator screws up and clarified all men are created equally. Suffrage once divided the nation that women rose up to clarify that all voices must be heard in our democracy. Jim crow once divided the nation with civil rights champions to clarify that all are entitled to equal protection under the law. We do not take this step as a divide and at this moment, the committee can rise up to clarify that under the constitution here in america no one is above the law. There are some whove asked why should it matter that donald trump pressure of a Foreign Government to target an american citizen for political gain and at the same time withheld without justification 391 million in military aid from a vulnerable ukraine that remains at war with russian backed separatists in the east. By should that matter . Perhaps Ronald Reagan had the best answer when he delivered a speech at the foot of the berlin wall in 1987 and stated east and west do not mistrust each other because we are armed. We are armed because we mistrust each other and our differences are not about weapons, but about liberty. That is at the heart of the trump ukraine scandal. Liberty, National Security, aabuse of power. America is the leader of the free world. We played that role because it is in the best interest of the National Security of the United States. We played that role because we believe in liberty and justice for all. Because freedom is in our dna. Freedom from oppression, from tyranny, abuse of power. Freedom is in our dna. What role do they go role should the committee play defending freedom . The house is a separate and coequal branch of government. We dont work for this president or any president. We work for the American People. We have a constitutional responsibility to serve as a check and balance on an outofcontrol executive branch. That is not the Democratic Party playbook. That is the playbook in a democratic republic. James madison once wrote in federalist 51 that the house should serve as a rival to the executive branch. No one is above the law in the United States. We must hold this president accountable for undermining americas National Security. We must hold this president ouruntable for corrupting democracy. We must impeach this president. We cant stop and we wont stop. The constitution is sacredly obligatory upon all. I yield back. House democrats are not clarifying that no one is above thee law. They were just clarifying partisanship and politics. This is the quickest, weakest, partisan impeachment in all of americanan president ial history. And for all of the radical left attacks on the president s honesty, its thei bare lies tht continue to fuel this scorched strategy of the impeachment. One of the members said the president of trump was an agent of the russian government engaged in a criminal conspiracy with the russians. He lied getting a new way to undermine the president advocates said he obstructed justice but they couldnt make the case. They didnt have the facts and there are no obstruction of justice articles in this impeachmentha. So, needing another new distractiodistraction, chairmans announced a whistleblower. He said we would hear from this person about data president ial conduct an immediate report on the whistleblower, raising serious concerns about political bias and proper motivation and scandalous coordination with a political hit job wind with none other than the operatives of chairman adam schiff with Public Opinion turning against the areachment, the democrats read to assemble focus groups had commissioned polls. They learned that accusing the president of bribery would be good politics. While democrats, house members are willing to follow the pundits and consultants, the evidence and witnesses were not. Even the seemingly most of the trump witness said i was never involved in anything i would consider bribery or extortion. Loving beholder there are now no bribery articles in this impeachment. Another lie. The biggest of all hi is House Democrats would not put our beautiful nation at the heart of the impeachment. Speaker pelosi said there must be evidence that is compelling and bipartisan. Chairman nadler said the impeachment shouldnt be partisan. And tonight they defy the standard that they set for themselves. Not only has this case failed to convince the supporters to abandon him, they cant even convince the president s congressional critics to go along with it. They dont support the president. They dont support this hot garbage impeachment either. A critic of the president told the trut truth, this isso an impeachable. After years of pointless and endless investigations against the president , this witchhunt is no longer simply troublesome. Its become deeply and excruciatingly tiresome. Time to move on. The American People hate this and its making some of them hate us this is nothing more than the sloppy straight to dvd ukrainian sequel to the failed russian hope. It seems that youve seen this movie before, its because you have. And we know how the cycle goes. Last night cnn or msnbc promised a smoking gun. It turned into this disappointing nothing burger. Its like they forgot they are trying to impeach President Trump for delivering military aid president obama himself withheld so now with no crime, no victim, House Democrats impeach because they have no agenda for america. The impeachment has become reflexive for democrats. Its what theyve wanted all along. Its their passion, their drug, the allconsuming ambition and obsession. It has been since the moment they stop crying that the three clinton election sob fest. They say President Trump abused his power. A sahe sat lowenergy placeholdr for an actual Impeachable Offense. The true crime in their eyes was winning the 2016 election against all odds and against the establishment of both parties. The only relevant quid pro quo is the American Peoples decision to send President Trump to the white house in exchange for the commitment to support our workers, restore the economy, defend the troops and drain the swamp. How dare they accuse him of abusing his power when they review the phone records and contracted a Kangaroo Court and subjected the administration to more harassment than any other history. They arhistory. The argus touristste were loser. The second article accuses him of obstructing congress. Ifrt thats an impeachable offee maybe we should impeach ourselves. Has obstructed progress on a budget, border security, infrastructure on a plan of economic reform that will put america and the American People first. The American People know what this is really about. Its not about ukraine or russia. Its not about the democrats executive decisionmaking process. Its about the election and so to the America First movement, we will face this illegitimate impeachment with our heads high, facts straight and commitment to our president deeply testified. We will see you on the field in 2020. The gentleman yield back. K. Mr. Sosa ratified the constitution in 1788 the president has had a duty to advance the National Interest not his own personal or political interests. 220 years later when the congressman on thede committee said, and i quote, this business of high crimes and misdemeanors goes to the question of whether or not the person serving as president of the United States for their own interests, their personal interests ahead of Public Service. The congressman who said that owwas mike pence and he was exactly right. In Impeachable Offenses as Alexander Hamilton explained or abuses of public trust. Injuries done to society itself. Hi crimes in other words are abuses of power committed against the people. This is exactly what President Trump has done. And yet, i haveom to admit i thk the president s distractions are working because most folks are sitting at home probably thinking what in the world does any of this have to do with me, how to stop in foreign aid to ukraine actually affect my life, that is why with my time i want to take a step back and remind everybody in this body and everyone watching at home but this is really about. President donald j. Trump yielded the enormous powers of the presidency to cheat in the 2020 election, specifically he used the nations leverage over an ally undermining our National Security to try to smear the opponent he feared most in the general election. It wasnt an attack o on Vice President biden. It was an attack on our democracy and if we dont hold the president accountable for it, we will send a catastrophic precedent anytime a future president is afraid of losing the reelection, he will feel entitled to do whatever it takes to win even if they have to have used their power to do it. If we said that precedent and decided the president is abovebu the law then we will no longer live in a democracy. We live in a dictatorship predating the values of medicine trading for the values of moscow. Thats why this should matter to every Single Person watching tonight because of th if the prt vets away with trying to cheat in the 2020 election, he will no longer be responsive to the will of the people. That means he could launch wars sending young people into harms way without worrying if facing repercussions at the ballot box and he could continue to separate children from their parents and lock them in cages not worrying about public outreach. He could take away your health care, pocket your tax dollars, do whatever he wants. H the president can cheat the people lose their voice and shes the one great president , hes a king. Im proud to represent the great state of rhode island. The very first state that said enough to king george free. Once again, im here on behalf of my state to say enough. In america we dont go to the president because it works for us, we the people. Heres the thing that people dont vote on impeachment, congress does. So before i close i want to speak directly to my republican friends. Wake up. Stop thinking of running for reelection and stop worrying about being primary. Stop deflecting and distracting as if they dont see whats going on. Like they are not smart enough to realize that you are willfully ignoring the fact to protect a corrupt and dangerous president. Do what you were elected to do. You didnt swear an oath to donald trump is worthy of defend the constitution of the United States. On or about both. Reach deep within yourself to find the courage to do with the evidence requires into the constitution demands, to put our country about your party. All you have to do is look at the evidence before you because it will leave you with only one answer. This president must be impeached. For a democracy, the constitution of the people you represent and all that will inherit the country from us i pray that you will do the right thing and despite everything that has happened the past few months i still have hope in my heart that you will end with wih that i will yield back. The gentleman yields back. Mr. Johnson. Thank you mr. Chairman. I was going to make a request for my colleagues on the other side to put the country over party also. We are looking at the same setqu of facts into totally different ways. The founders warned against a single partytr impeachment. Youat know why. Because they feared that it would divide the nation. In the years past that was openly acknowledged by the democrats are leadin that are le single party impeachment youve raised today. Some are quoted as saying so. Our radical liberal colleagues have since the day of his desperately created a culture that unprecedented process to pursue that goal and now they are pulling the trigger on what was described by professor and his expert testimony just several days ago as the shortest sitting with the thinnest evidentiary record and the narrowing ground to impeach an american president. Weve called this a sham because we simply dont have a better way to describe it. House democrats have been working to impeach since 20 the beginning. They have separate resolutions in the minority in 2017 and 2018 and a new resolution on january 2019 when they took thee majority. In all as many as 95 House Democrats, listen, 95 of them including 16 o 16 of 24 democras sittinthe 24 democratssitting ie room have already voted to proceed and they did it well before the famous phone call between President Trump and zelensky that they placed in july of 2019. Although every previous u. S. U. President has made unpopular decisions and even at times infuriated his political opponents, impeachments are for good reason and by specific design exceedingly rare in the 243 year history of the nation, only two previous president s come and go johnson in 68 and bill clinton in 98 hav and 98 hn impeached by the house. Richard nixons of course resigned to avoid it and in each of those, the evidence clearly established by specific criminal acts were committed and that is not the case here. The language and the constitutioin the constitutionss and youve got to look at the details because democrats found no evidence of bribery or any high crimes misdemeanor against President Trump of course they already promised his impeachment to the liberal base so they thought they had no choice. They had to default and what do they comelr up with these two articles, abuse of power and obstruction of congress. But he is a forward as a non criminal act. Its the second that the democrats made this their first article in the document as the professor testified in january the country has never impeached a president largely on the basis of a non criminal abuse of power obligation because it is so amorphous. Its very subjective. In this case there has to be a clear and unequivocal proof of a quid pro quo that does not exist here. Democrats kno know there is zero direct evidence in the record of the proceeding to prove the case, and its rather shocking they built their articles on the hearsay speculation ande conjecture that wouldnt even be admissible in the local traffic court. Court. Democrats include bold allegations are completelyt unsupported by thehe evidentiary record for exampl for example oa bunch of corrupt purposes or intent at least eight times that distance is zero proof for the claim, theres also zer zero thh for example President Trump was pursuing a personal benefit or the interest of the country. Country. The contrary the record is clear he is doing exactly the opposite. There are indisputablee facts today that clearly destroy the case. Both President Trump and zelensky said there was no pressure exerted to july 25 call transcript shows no conditionality between the investigation. Ukraine wasnt aware that it was delayed when the president spoke anddi ukraine never opened up an investigation but still received aid and a meeting with President Trump. The abuse of power here is the recklessly pursue of the impeachment and theyve done so at the detriment of our rules and procedures and constitutionally guaranteed due process. There is no way that they have obstructed congress here. They have a legitimate claim to that because that is what every president hasve done in the modn hite house officials butha going to get reelected and the fact he might buy an even larger margin they cant stand this president literally everything he does in our system but congress doesnt give to remove a president just because theyt y support the policies and the rule of lawe in the system ruls we all do better and it has to be followed and preserved. I prayg. That we can still do ts when the charade is over and after this dangerous precedent has sent to the future of the blessed nation. I will see say as they did in e last hearing, god help us and i will yield back. When i was five my dad was a policthe police chief in algona. He was and still is a law and order guy. Everything by the book. So that you have a county fair was going on and the fire chief called and told him that cars were parked illegally in the fire lane it wasnt a close cal for my dad. He knew what to do. The trouble was that owners of the cars were the mayor and a few Council Members who believed their titles allowed them to park wherever they wanted. My dad warned that they were compromising the safety of other fairgoers and they must move. They laughed at my dad had kept their cars there. My dad stuck to his council mes summoned by the mayor and told he was to fix the tickets or be fired. My dad believed no one was above the law and held firm. He lost his job and we packed up our little familyve and moved west. It was my first lesson in politics, abuse of power and executive arrogance. Watching these proceedings and watching my colleagues across the aisle ignore and deny the facts in blind defense of the president of the United States, im certain that had they been in algona, they too would have supported the mayor. Their behavior has been a reminder that too often in politics there is more of an emphasis off keeping your job rather than doing the right thing. But governance is about courage. Think about the courage displayed by the witnesses who came forward int this investigation. People like the Lieutenant Colonel, ambassador marie and doctor fiona hill. They knew the price they would pay for the truthful testimony. They knew that they would be smeared by supporters of the president and sadly even by the president himself. They knew their career could be infected perhaps forever. But they told the truth anyway and they held to the oath of the constitution. If theyto can show that type of everything, why cant my republican colleagues . The facts are not in dispute. Donald trump tha abused his powy putting his pure personal gain over our country. Here are the facts. Donald trump directed Rudy Giuliani to smear his political rival. Donald trump tiger and anticorruption ambassador who stood in his way. He wa withheld 391 million of d that was essential to ukraine and donald trump withheld a white house meeting and unless the ukrainian president would do him a favor. He wasnt an incidental player. He was the central player and anything we dont know about what he did is because donald trump continues to this moment to block us from knowing. He used his office to abuse his power to reelect himself. Those are your taxpayer dollars and votes. Thats our National Security. This is no longer about what the president did. We know what he did. This is about what will we do. And my colleagues are at the fact the hardworking people in california and in my district or michigan or a farmer in wisconsin arent following this and dont care despite how unquestionable facts are in support of the impeachment but i have faith in the American People, and i know that they know right a from wrong just asy father did. And i know that regardless of the title a person holds, no one can abuse their power. Imagine you are a kid with a paper route. The first chil job so many amers the owner of a paper tells you you are due for a raise and im going to give you thee raised at first, i need you to remove the competitors paper from every house on your route. Route. Is a cognitive dissonance and alternative reality they have created. One of our colleagues across the aisle said if the president were innocent he would come forward tot bring documents and everybody would come. To wear . To this committee . Wecu can even get a fact witness in here we get law professors damaging to the president is that ask leaking material that we want them to come . Bring it to us. We will blast it we will curb it and create the situation we want to misinterpret everything you do. Here is a for instance they claimed the president had a public announcement of investigations before anybody said anything with ambassador gordon said no one on earth told him that he also said the only direct conversation he had with the president about these things was that he wanted nothing from ukraine except its corruption the best evidence is the transcript between the president zelensky and President Trump no quid pro quo no conditionality aid was not even mentioned on the call various Ukrainian Government officials said theren is no pressure or conditions in fact the most recent statement from a week ago said it was fine no pressure. Whats the deal . President trump apparently said find out what happened in the 2016 election with the cooperation of the attorney general that does warrant a real investigation into corruption of all corruption in ukraine so here we go. So we were told there was no attempt yet politico wrote january 2017 they found evidence of Ukrainian Government involvement in the race. Multiple Media Outlets reported those facts creating the focal point was joe biden the President Trump was concerned about all corruption they all testify that was a legitimate concern but the ost notorious was burisma the board of directors just happened to be hunter biden. That is not proper to investigate that type of conduct because his father is a politician. That is what thats about thats the corruption and abuse of power going on only reason President Trump release the aid because it became public but the fact of the matter is they produce no evidence on that or a timeline from which they drew inferences but the stronger inference it was released because on the same day it was released Ukrainian Government implemented the immunity for ukrainian legislators and the anticorruption record with shamelessness the fact of the matter is he is allowed them to participate without retribution and has constitutedlo valid privilege to comply with those privileges he said violated that privilege. We can assert or remedy but you dont want to assert or remedy you dont want to go to court or negotiate with the aexecutive branch. You want to hurry and impeach you wanted to take it to court and find out the court wouldt say it is overly broad and would narrow the privilege but you want impeachment thats all you want. Your case comes down to this to gossip and rumors and innuendo you dont have direct evidence that is a crying shame. The abuseha of power is used by this party trying to produce this pre conceived preordained results. I yelled back. Larry hogan in 1974 as a member of this committee articulated the task before us tonight and not only the president of the United States is above the law and the congressman voted to impeach nixon for two crimes. And then to order crimes against democracy and to block congresses efforts to investigate. N but under the constitution those laws are faithfully executed. So if he commits high crimes and misdemeanors against democracy itself as an extended then impeachment is the essential instrument for protecting the integrity of elections to maintain selfgovernance in america. Our fellow citizens on contradicted evidence of true high crimes and misdemeanors against American People not just the 63 million invoked by one of our colleagues the 65. 8 million who voted for the president s major opponent and those who voted for other candidates in the millions more since the first President Trump secretly condition the white house meeting with hundreds of millions of dollars of Security Assistance we voted for ukraine on ukrainian president s agreement to become a mouthpiece for President Trumps 2020 campaign. Trump executed for one reason only to get himself reelected. But then secondly official after official his own administration came forward to misconduct and testify under oath by categorically obstructing congresses obligation to intimidate witnesses and withhold all the evidence that he could they thought that might drag Foreign Policy one powers and that democratic sovereignty. And to consider this a key Impeachable Offense in America Elections belong to the people, not to k the president. Thats because the government belongs to the people not the president. Hes not the private property of the royal family. Here as president ford said the people rule. And those high crimes in progress right now. And that is absolutely perfect to read the transcript it is Proof Positive he brags that article two allows me to do whatever i want but article two section four all about impeachment. And i have devoted my career to teach the constitution and my passion is popular selfgovernment of the democratic and Voting Rights of the people. And i am confess i am afraid if we allow president s to participate a overtly this becomes america new normal. Even if you dont believe a shred of the overwhelming evidence you have seen in this investigation if just one of them this is wrong for any president to commit the conduct of the president is accused of. Will any of them say the president of the United States should not drag foreign powers into our election . Ben franklin said i have observed wrong grows more wrong until there is no burying it but right, however opposed comes right at last. So what must we do . Stand by the constitution to take strong actions if you achieve the willful ee let stand for our democracy. I yield back. Nearly two years ago the house Intelligence Community issued its report and stated that fbi officials did not have views the size of a process to omit Material Information orders support subvert this. And cora gatlin categorically contradicts the fisa report there was no shred of truth in it and also chairman nadler announced the judiciary committed Committee Accepts the latest report without a single fact hearing of our own. No one disputes joe biden son was paid millions of dollars to sit on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian Company burisma despite no experience in oil or gas or ukraine. Te and that biden threatened to withhold 1 billion of loan guarantees to the Ukrainian Government unless it fired prosecutor general. Biden says he was merely carrying out policy and knew nothing of his sons affairs. But sworn affidavits said he was about to hunter one question hunter biden with his relationship with burisma and they struck down the administration and he was fired so with president zelensky as a centerpiece of the democrats case he asked for help to getting to the bottom of the scandalshe involving corrupt interactions with officials and ukraine and the United States there is no direct evidence the president ever withheld aid to the investigation all executive authority to conduct Foreign Affairs that the laws be faithfully executed among these is the corrupt practices act offering something of value. Being a candidate doesnt shield the person from scrutiny ass candidate trump about that. The National Defense authorization act requires administration to determine ukraine is taking steps toal combat corruption. This does not relieve the president of his executive authority to review and maintain the findings. Within days of the zelinski conversation to portray as a solicitation in exchange for foreign aid. This false narrative was laid out in a whistleblower complaint we have learned the whistleblower coordinated with the chef office while concealing the relationship that he is said to be a protege of joe biden and is represented by an attorney ten days afterad the inauguration for rebellion impeachment the first article charges the president with a madeup crime of abuse off office he violated no law he exercised authority clearly granted by the constitution instead the democrats would nullify the election because they impute toto him motives this is precisely the abuse of impeachment the american founders feared to overrule a nationalprim election as a weapn of partisan warfare reducing the president to serve at the pleasure of congress destroying the separation of powers at the heart of the ntconstitution. With obstruction of Congress Another madeup crime because he sought to defend his constitutional right of policy discussions of same confidentiality they say this prevents for proof for their charges yet the democrats have suppressed nearly every witness the republicans have tried to call in a free society that a defendant can assert his constitutional right and prosecutors are not allowed to decide what witnesses the defense may call. The second article turns these principles upside down. I have every confidence the president will be acquitted in reelected its damaging the presidency, congress, the constitution, bill of rights that the democrats do today to establish a dangerous precedent and principles antithetical to the rule of law and the architecture of our constitution. I yield back. When i was just 16 years old i came to this country by mysel myself. My parents made the ultimate sacrifice of placing an ocean between them and their beloved child because they believed america was worth it. Two decades later i raised my hand and i swore my oath to country and constitution for the first time when i became an american citizen of the greatest nation on thisio earth for naturalized citizens like me being american is a conscious choice and a granted privilege dream between deserts and sees one of generations overcoming every challenge andnd obstacle because america is worth it. What is so different with this shining city upon a hill . Three words, we theo people. America is a bold vision rooted. In a fragile idea of a democracy where power is derived not from the bloodlines of monarchs but the votes of people it is the nation all of us engaged in the great experiment of democracy we take our power collectively through elections entrusted to a president who must always act in her interest, not in theirs. The framers believed in the promise of america but they also knew the dangers of power unchecked so they gifted us the constitution of the United States. The protected and connective tissue to have the highest law of the land to trust the peoples house with a solemn responsibility to hold the executive responsible. But the president used to his own personal gain to leverage critically needed congressionally approved military aid in exchange for allies appearing in our elections. This is not hearsay the president was the first and best witness in this case. The president admitted to his wrongdoing on national television. The president is the smoking gun. Has obstruction of congress to deny even a single document is unprecedented but yet in spite of that obstruction multiple patriots came forward to provide a damning corroborating testimony. Understand the seriousness of what this means President Trump has solicited for an interference before he is doing it now h and will do it again. The smoking gun is already reloaded. Whether or not it is fired , that is up to us. The abuse of power is the highest of constitutional crimes in the bravest of betrayals for good if we allow this president to put himself above the law we allow all future president s to be above the law so we submit we will no longer be a democracy but a monarchy for a dictatorship this moment is a test of the vision of our framers and the resilience of our constitution and the character of our elected officials. As we cast our votes, we must reflect on our responsibility to our children and our childrenses children and summon the courage to do what is right and defend our democracy and for this reason i will vote to impeach donald j. Trump shouldering the responsibility given to me by my constituents and honoring my oath to protect and defend the constitution of the United States of america. Mine is not aan vote against any person, a vote for the constitution and for we the people because america is so deeply worth it. If anyone and is guilty of obstructing congress around here its the democrats, not the president. This is the most corrupt rigged railroad job ive ever seen in my entire life. First, we now have proof that obamas fbi doctored evidence and use knowingly false Opposition Research paper by the democrats of Hillary Clinton to spy on the Trump Campaign. The Obama Administration started the investigation againstsp trump that lasted nearly two years based on false claims by adam schiff and other democrats thatwo trump colluded with russia issuing 2000 subpoenas 500 warrants with 25 million and came up with nothing. The Mueller Report determine no american inserted on citizen let alone the president colluded with russia. ,ut that didnt stop the democrats. Know. Next it was obstruction of justice then quid pro quo that bribery than extortion and witness tampering then treason and the list goes on and on. It would be laughable if it wasnt so serious. On top of that democrats rigged the process from the start. First, contrary to all previous impeachment hearing Speaker Pelosi gave the hearings to chairmanship where the president had no due process to listen to or crossexamine witnesses. Schiff conducted closeddoor hearings in a basement room where he repeated the loft Republican Congress members from entering, including me. Rejected republican witness request and silence republicans when i tried to ask witnesses questions. And constantly leaked details to the press. Not until the hearings reach the Judiciary Committee did they allow the president to even have a chance to hear or crossexamine witnesses. By then it was too late because chairman nadler blocked the president from any due process by refusing to bring forward any witnesses the president could crossexamine in the chair man refused to schedule a minorityrd hearing awaiting house rules. There is no evidence the president committed any Impeachable Offense that one could identify a crime democrat witnesses established to commit bribery or treason or any high crime or misdemeanor asas required under the constitution democrats have been determined to impeach the president since he was electedr in fact 17 out of 24 democrats of the Judiciary Committee voted in favor of impeachment even before the president s phone call and before any one of these hearings took place. Enclosing there is no evidence of an Impeachable Offense but dont take my word for it take from the constitutional attorney who said he does not support the president and in his testimony he said this wouldd be the first impeachment in history where there would be considerable debate and not commission of the crime this only fail to satisfy the standard of past impeachments but now we create a dangerous precedent. The democrats have said what they would do they will impeach the president come hell or high water it doesnt matter they have no proof it doesnt matter 1724 democrats already voted in favor of impeachment democrats dont seem to notice orit care is not the president that is committing the abuse of power but them. Its time for my democratic colleagues to look at themselves in the near i yelled back. The gentlewoman from florida. This is a defining moment in our history and a challenging time for ours nation. America has been through tough times before and i am sure we will go through tough times again i grew up in florida and the youngest of seven children. My mother cleaned houses for a living my father was a janitor but also mowed lawns i remember my dad use to go to work seven days a week to make ends meet for our family. I grew up poor but my parents were good, decent and honest people who taught me to be decent and respectful they taught me to work hard and play by the rules and treat others i wanted to be treated. I was the first in my family to go to college and after graduation i joined the Orlando Police department and started out as a Patrol Officer working midnight shift but the story does not end there. I had the awesome opportunity of working my way up through the ranks to become orlandos first woman chief of police. Now im privileged to serve in congress. Hear me clearly. I believe only in america can a little black girl, the daughter of a maid and janitor have such an amazing opportunity so regardless of the painful political debates, no one can make me give up on americana. I believe in the promise of america because i have seen the promise of america and i come before you tonight as an American Dream realized. Because america is great and decent in our democracy complete because we live in a government of the people i have taken for oath semi lifetime to as a Law Enforcement officer now to as a member of congress. Different times and different places but each stated i will protect and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. My oath was not to an individual or a Political Party or institution it was to the United States constitution. Icon the 40 you tonight as an africanamerican female as the descendent of slaves that dreamed and prayed one day i would make it i come before you tonight proclaiming in spite of americas complicated history my places in the constitution to enforce the law and now i write the law and i know that nobody is above the law but it Means Nothing if the man who breaks in your house or the president can destroy evidence stop witnesses from testifying and not to operate in the investigation name somebody in your family or community who could do that. The president is the commander in chief and his responsibility is great our president put his personal interest above the nation and he shall be held accountable. The framers were so concerned of a president abusing his powers George Washington was particularly concerned of unprincipled men finding their way into the white house. Those times have found us. And we only have one option which is to hold this president accountable because nobody is above the law. Thank you and i yield back. We have heard some great speeches tonight democrats know they cant beat President Trump in 2024 on his merits they have taken some thoughts and feelings and assumptions from bureaucrats to impeach the president so lets just step back we have two articles of impeachment against the president abuse of power and the obstruction of congress dissect each one and start with abuse of power at this point it is a vestige of quid pro quo thats what the democrats were calling before they called in a focus group to find out bribery was more compelling. Now they have dropped bribery that accusing the president of abuse of power. Thats because the crime of brian one t bribery simply did not take place chairman schiff and nadler could not make out a prima facie case because it has no merit there are no elements to support the underlying crime democrat simply cannot make out what we call the prima facie case to be dismissed at a very early level and remember president zelensky has repeatedly said there was no pressure the transcript the actual document shows there was no linkage whatsoever. The ukrainians were not even aware aid was on hold when the president spoke and ukraine never had an investigation with the javelin missiles there was no quid pro quo. At the democrats really want to charge somebody with abuse of power they should go no further than chairmanship to use subpoena power to subpoena individual phone records that went through those records to single out representative nunez in an attempt to smear the Ranking Member that is the abuse of power talking aboutt n more what about 8000 pages of documents on judiciary republicans less than 48 hours before the last hearin hearing . That is an abuse of power chairman schiff would be facing sanctions and defending his law license talking about obstruction briefly lets deconstruct that our government has three branches of governmentbs when there is a disagreement between the executive and legislative branch thats when the courts thats what happened when the republicans had an issue with fast and furious and went to the courts now democrats refuse to go to the courts why . It does not fit their political timeline before christmas. The onlyal obstruction here is that of the Democratic Party dont forget last week judiciary democrats voted down the motion to subpoena the whistleblower that was obstruction of Congress Must not forgeteb chairman nadler that chairman schiff testified under oath that is obstruction of congress is not forget the other side still refuses to bring any fact witnesses before this committee that is obstruction of congress. In conclusion we have abuse of power . Yes. Adam schiff obstruction from co congress . Yes. Democrats lets call this for what it is a political hit job thank you and i yield back. Thank you mister chairman. I was elected to congress across the aisle with democrats and republicans to ensure the voices of my constituents were heard loud sland clear they sent me to work for good Jobs Education healthcare and housing among other issues the son of immigrants my election to congress is an example of the American Dream and how hard work can make the American Dream come true. My mom clean hotel rooms 1. 60 per hour when i was growing up in today her son is a member of congress. Yet sadly on my way to congress in 2016 the president ial election was tarnished by foreign influence ed danger our Founding Fathers warned us about. Than later we ask ourselves did the president solicit foreign interference in our democratic election . Sadly the answer is yes as a member of the Homeland Security committee i know firsthand the dangers of foreign interference and what it presents our democracy. When a nation gained its independence the framers use the power of the presidency that is a public trust the constitution and the highest law in the land created a system of checks and balances to prevent the creation of a King Congress is coequal branch equal with the Presidency Congress is equal with the presidency with the duties given to us by the framers. And they of the job to investigate allegations of misconduct of the executive branch including our president. I dont take impeachment lightly on lightly i had a chance to vote to impeach the president on the floor and every time i voted no but today i have listened and study the evidence presented in the. Hearings and i am here o do my job as a member of congress and protect the American Dream. It is my constitutional job to make sure that as Ronald Reagan once said america is a shining city upon the hill for freedom loving people im here to make sure it continues to be that giant city of democracy. [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] today i asked god for wisdom and guidance to guide our great nation. I yield back. John adams said i first saw the constitution of the United States in a foreign country and read it with great satisfaction as the result good heads prompted by good hearts adapting to the genius character and relations of this nation more than what any had been proposed and repeatedly laid myself of the most serious obligation to support the constitution what other form of government can so well deserve our steam and love i love this country and i love this constitution which is why i am so disappointed to see we are witnessing for the first time the constitutional power of impeachment being tmisused with the removal of president for high crimes and misdemeanors not even for campaignfinance violations or bribery for treason they areea using it to remove a president from office because they dont like his policies. I agree with my colleagues they are right this is no small event the leaders of one half of one branch of government have decided that they, not the American People should determine who their president should be the provisions of article two section one that determine how the people elect the President Shall be superseded by impeachment powers under article one section two of the constitution. While giving broad latitude to the house to set its own rules for impeachmentio congress is understood if it is to be viewed as legitimate by the people the proceeding must be as devoid of politics as possible fax Speaker Pelosi said impeachment must be compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan this process has none of these characteristics and throughout this partisan process the Judiciary Committee has been sidelined with nothing more than a rubberstamp when you sidelined the Judiciary Committee sidelined justice the transcripts that were made public of course they could not watch or question witnesses and chairmanship ordered them not to answer questions and lied about his contact with the whistleblower and obtain phone records and leaking them to the press and then refused to appear to defend his egregious actions putting aside the severely flawed process they have proceeded they failed to establish a viable case for impeachment against the president i have reviewed the evidence and read the transcripts and the proof of a high crime and misdemeanor is notaga there mister chairman you said yourself in 1898 the president s accusers must go beyond hearsay and innuendo so lets review the intelligence evidence ambassador sondland it depends on which of the three testimonies you are reading the one consistency and all three direct messages from the white house was no quid pro quo in addition 16 other officials opted to testify in this investigation all testifying hearsay opinion and speculation the list goes on all testify to hearsay or opinion orr, speculation but there are facts no matter how the democrats try to spin it for will never change no pressure on the call no conditionality ofma aid ukrainians were not aware it was withheld and ukraine did not open the investigation but still receive the aid in a meeting with the president regrettably my democratic colleagues have proven time and time again they are concerned about the facts tonight the majority takes a step down the path to achieve the goal longsought removing the president from office but at what price at theat rejection and restriction and the abandonment of the rules that have served this committee for two prior impeachments but the very fabric of this country Thomas Jefferson said i know safe depository of society of the peoplele themselves and if theyre not enlightened enough to exercise their control of the wholesome direction the remedy is not to take it from them but to informli them their discretion by education this is a sad day and an abuse of power designed to achieve what they could not achieve at the ballot box. Day in america. I yelled back. A. Two years ago i never dreamed i would be sitting here as a member of congress the only office i was elected to was School Board Just outside philadelphia. He i left one i love my job as a Public Interest layer and i loved my job with kids to understand why our government and laws make our country that shining city on a hill beacon of freedom to the entire world located just a few blocks from Independence Hall where the constitution was written to learn the importance of citizenship to be an informed participant in government i believeti in those lessons with my entire heart thats about me to congress. Many of my students came with me and looked down from the house gallery i took an oath to support and defend the constitution to put our country before myself the question we must answer today not only as members of congress but has americans will be have a president that refuses to do the same cracks we would not be here today but for the bravery and active citizenship of ordinary men and women who also took an oath to support and defend our constitution and chose to put service to country before self american citizens like ambassadorco taylor Lieutenant Colonel and fiona hill. They demonstrated a love of country and the unclouded understanding of right and wrong. They testified to Congress Despite opposition from the president and at great personal risk. We expect these qualities in Public Service we must demand them from our president. This president has failed that to understand the difference between right and wrong and above all to put aside personal interest when the Nation Security and values are at stake. This moment is more than disagreements of the president s personality or policies they belong in the voting booth. Our time today is not to judge himself, instead we will judge the president s actions and if they have undermined our government. Because it is the office of the president to which we owe our loyalty and not the man who occupies it. We must not turn a blind eye to the undisputed facts. The president use the highest office ine government and pressured foreign country so he could cheat on our elections and when he got caught he tried to cover it up instructing our investigation and our courts and in doing so there is no higher crime under the constitution then that. This exactly the behavior congress feared most they knew the awesome power of the presidency the risk of a president viewing abusing the power with those values enshrined in the constitution is not the first time at another time in the future the country was in jeopardy president lincoln charge the people with the same responsibility we must dedicate ourselves to ensure government of the people by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth and to abuse the powers where they pressure a foreign election is not by the people and those putting their interest before the country is not for the people this is not complicated. You know it, i know it by constitution students know it and in their heart our colleagues acrossy the aisle know it. We have no principled alternative but to support these articles of impeachment, our constitution, our country, and her children depend on it. I you back i yelled back. My democratic colleagues try to cloak this proceeding as a somber seriousus progress process they regret. That is not the case. It is nakedly partisan exercise. This is always been about the fact these democrats hate this president. Have been focused on removing him since the day elected and long ago they decided that impeachment was the remedy. They constantly and consistently marched ahead and deterred by fax and make no mistake this started long before the july 25th phone call the russia Conspiracy Theory obstruction of justice was abandoned after the mother caring self flat Campaign Finance charges never got off the ground they protested bribery but that doesnt work because the one they said there was no crime but none of that matters because it was never about the truth it was aboutri politics so here we are tonight on the ambiguous abuse of power. Prior to the election there was a change. Org petition of the mental diagnosis of the president shortly after the chairman said he was legally elected with russian interference makes it illegitimate a press release said this president semi elect does not deserve to be president and once President Trump was sworn in the democrats introduced articles of impeachment almost immediately in three years they have introduced ten ntresolutions related to impeachment and 17 members of this committee have voted to consider impeachmenty and every one of those votes occur before the july 25th phone call. Here are statements made the crime of treason means you must have a total shutdown of any agenda item a tree accompanying up picture of the president obama the last real president another member i dont think this president was fit to serve even before he took office april 2018 finally an exasperated Committee Member wrapped it up by revealing i think we just need to impeach the guy. There it is. That is what this impact on hearing has always been about and thats why we are here tonight, the democrats just want to impeach a duly elected president. This began the day the president was elected and culminated here. That the never ending march to impeachment and the results of the 2016 election have consequences. Because you are telling 63 million voters you dont respect or honor their vote. 2600 counties 84 percent of the Geographic Area of america voters in states like mine that senta democrats to congress but in recent years who fell no wrong that their sensibilities are replaced by ideology and the partisan points are more important than Practical Solutions voters that no rather to win back their trust and support he would rather invalidate the results of the last election in silence their voices for the future. The never endingt quest is a constant reminder to the americans you dont trust their judgment and mock their way of life and you could not care less of the issues that matter most as the chairman stated novembe november 2018 if youre serious about removing the president from office and the last three years to talk about interference in the 2016 election unwilling to accept the results what if my colleagues recognize the irony that the impeachment date is the greatest interference at all it is homegrown in the halls of congress. I yield back. Ei thank you mister chairma chairman, the American People and all of us have to live with the decisions we make today. Moving forward with articles of impeachment against the president of the United States with the abuse of power and obstruction of congress. This should weigh heavily on each one of us because the future of our democracy depends on it. I raised my right hand and put my left hand on the bible more than once and swore an oath of office to the American People into the constitution of the United States. We have all taken this oath to support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic the very action to take an oath and to give your word is a powerful one many take different owns and from a young age we develop our sense of right and wrong and learn the golden rule and the Ten Commandments we are taught that are word matters and when we go back on it this is true for millions of young girls and boys across the country that have taken in the girl scout or boy scout privilege pledge. I took the four h pledge i still remember the part that remains with me today. I pledge my heart to your loyalty and my hands for Larger Service in my community and my country. This pledge is meant to teach the value to fulfill your promise to others of loyalty and service todays proceedings are about our pledge to the constitution and future of the republic this commitment was shattered by donaldld trump when he violated his oath of office with loyalty and service to the American People the framers included in pete impeachment as a safeguard whosee ego could destroy the very foundations of our constitution it is as though they had a crystal ball and when they looked at it, who did theywe see . Donald j. It trump abusing his power betraying the nation and corrupting elections. These are the abcs of impeachablee behavior the framers feared the most donald j. Trump abuse this power to order government officials not to appear before us donald j. Trump betrayed our nation when he declared i can do whatever i wantt is president wrongfully using the constitution to argue he is above the law donald j. Trump corrupted our elections asking a Foreign Government to interfere in his personal and political gains i take no pleasure in the work of this committee today. I grew up poor in rural south texas one of ten children i know what it takes and to stand in line and welfare clinic to get a shot and i know what its like to pick cotton in the hot texas side. I never imagined it would be a member of Congress Even less i never imagined i would be in a position where i would need to consider impeaching a president. Yet last year i became along miss escobar to be elected to congress from texas. I did not come here to impeach a president. I came here to make a difference in the lives of my constituents and the American People. And to make things better for our next generation of children. Here we are in the middle of a constitutional crisis. For every and girl in this country and show them that pledges matter, the promises they make a do matter. Democracy is a gift, and each generation gets the next. We must act and we much impeach. Thank you mister, chairman i yield back. The general idiots back. Thats the president has been elected, democrats a climber for the impeachment. On the first day my swearing in this member of this, Congress Democrats in my class were calling for impeachment on the day that we swore in, long before President Trump made a phone call with the newly elected president of ukraine. For almost a year, the Democratic Congress in this committee has focused its efforts and energy are impeaching President Trump. First, the democrats theory of impeachment was russia collusion. After 22 months of investigation, and millions of tax dollars spent, and democratic lawyers investigating the president , they found nothing, no collusion, bob muellers up before this committee and testify there was no evidence that the Trump Campaign collided or conspired with russia. Next, it was obstruction of justice. After searching diligently and fight trying to find any evidence the president obstructed justice, democrats abandoned that theory. By comparison, clintons impeachment article two had seven different incidents of obstruction of justice, supported by the evidence collected by the independent counsel, seven different incidents of a crime being committed. And now, according to a democrat staffer the intel, committee a whistle blower filed a carefully scripted complaint based solely and completely on hearsay. The democrats theory now turn to a quid pro quo, which im assuming, because one of their own president s clearly admitted to a quid pro quo our national halogen, and there is no evidence of a quid pro quo in a phone transcript trumps trump released. So theyve been that there is well. All passed historic due process for the majority in the president , in the democrat ran a partisan investigation, refusing the rights of the minority, refusing the ability of the president s counsel to call witnesses. Bill clinton alone called 14 witnesses on his behalf during his impeachment proceedings, refusing to allow the president s counsel to call fact witnesses, are refusing already hearing day, just to name a few. Unlike president nixon and click ten who were impeached for actual crimes, President Trump is being impeached based on theories concocted by the democrats. I imagine just about any law professor could make an argument every president in the history of our country abused his power at some point in time in the presidency, because that would be an opinion, not a crime. They need backup for their approach, they paraded liberal festers within a mosque as the president who gave the license to impeach the president for any reason that they which. Most professors, a stanley, and in direct contradiction even the most simplistic concept of due process, stated that impeachment does not have to be rooted in any recognized criminal standard, because the impeachment portion of the constitution was written before criminal statutes. Their second article of impeachment, obstruction of, congress serves only to highlight the absurdity of the situation that they have put us in. Congressional oversight is a serious constitutional responsibility, the bedrock of the checks and balances that the founders envisioned. However, democrats have not created a standard if you do not give them what they want what they wanted we will impeach you for obstruction of justice of congress. This is not a solemn duty ambition by the kong chris. This congress issued a flurry of subpoenas in accordance with the right. The president had every first year lawsuit in civil, procedure seek judicial review of the subpoena that was we do disclosure privileged information. By not allowing a judicial review of the, subpoenas democrats are technically the legislative branch has not limited an indisputable right to any and all information they so choose, regardless of the rights and privileges of the president or the executive, a coequal branch of our government. House democrats are making themselves kings in a manner far worse more obvious what theyre accused the president doing. To quote mr. Curly, who testified before this committee, facing an impeachment on this instruction obstruction theory would itself be an abuse of power by congress. It would be extremely dangerous and separate future president s and congress is in macon appeal to the judiciary into high crimes and misdemeanors. The constitution states an article two section four the president or Vice President shall be removed from office on condition of commission of trees in, the high crime, is bribery or misdemeanors. No it is to say we couldnt impeach a pressing for peace of power obstruction of congress. In, fact the requirement does not exist in the constitution into implied that high comes misdemeanors would include a obstruction of congress or abuse of, power is affections. Let me conclude, no obstruction, no quid pro, quo to freeze, no, bribery not crimes misdemeanors. The only evidence i see is that mr. Turley highlighted, that abuse of power from this congress i had a democratic majority has run this, chamber this committee, and this investigation. The chairman of this committee keep saying that history will judge our decisions. Youre decisions and out of your colleagues in the majority will be judged much sooner than by history. They will be judged by voters in 2020, and i guess we will see who is on the right side of history. I yield back. Gentleman yields back. Mr. Neguse. Thank you mister chair. I would like to begin tonight by speaking directly to the americans listening and watching. You may disagree with the Sepsis Committee is taking. I hope that you will understand that we are proceeding on this path truly out of love for our country. We are your neighbors. We are your colleagues. Your fellow worshippers. We are all citizens of the greatest nation on earth. We are blessed to live in a country where our similarities are outweighing our differences. My parents immigrated to this country. And every day im grateful to them for their decision, and to the United States of america for giving us the opportunity to live the American Dream. My parents came to this country because they want to their children to grow up in a place that is free, a country where leaders respect the rule of law, and where they dont use the power of government to target political opponent. A country with Fair Elections, where everyone has the right to vote. Thomas payne described voting as a primary right by which other rights are protected. Our sacred right to a free and Fair Election is ingrained in our constitution. It is a right offered to every american, no matter their background, and yet, today, that right is under attack like never before. In 2016, russia interfered in our elections, in sweeping and systematic fashion, and as we know, the trump administration, the Campaign Welcomed at that time, that interference. Now, the president of the United States has solicited interference of a Foreign Government in the 2020 president ial election for his own advantage. President trump abused his power, and then engage in a wholesale obstruction of congress to cover it up. The fact remains in the history of our republic, no president has ever ordered such a complete defines of an impeachment inquiry until now. If anything is clear, it is this. Every american deserves to know that the president will not in danger our National Security, that he or she will not seek to use their power to undermine our free and Fair Elections, and that they will not tap a Foreign Government to help tip the scales in their favor. The framers of the constitution describe impeachment in that sacred document because they feared a moment like this one, where the articles impeaching before us our mechanism for accountability so ultimately, we must move forward because solomon heavy work before us, and i hope that as we do so, while some may agree with this process and some may oppose, it everyone will remember that at the end of the, day each and every one of us are americans, we all treasure the same flag, we all reveal the same prostitution, but each committees working so hard to uphold. Like many of my colleagues, when i ran for congress, i knew that the hardest one, would be being away from my wife and my infant daughter. My daughter is 15 months old now, and i think a lot about the world that she will inherit. She is not old enough to remember the proceedings before us today, but one day she will be, added one day, she will know this committee has an obligation to defend our democracy, to honor our oaths and to uphold the rule of law, so, i will support the articles of impeachment before us because, it is what the constitution requires of us it is what my conscience demands, i hope and i pray that my colleagues will do the same, and with that i yield back. Gentleman yields back. It is mcbath. Thank, you mister chairman. Since january, ive been privileged to serve the people of georges six congressional district. When i was a small child, my family and still to meet the importance of service and building community. And as ive grown in life, i have held many roles. Daughter, wife, working mother, but i never imagine congresswoman would be one of them. My goal is to the same as many other americans. I want to start a family, and raise a caring, compassionate child. Like many women, i struggled to get pregnant, and after years of trying, my son, jordan, was a miracle for me, for our family. I dreamed of who jordan would become. I dreamed of watching him walk across the stage at his high school graduation, full of love and hope for the future. I dreamed and carrying one or familys legacy of Public Service. But seven years ago, on a day much like today, jordan was sitting in the back seat of a car with his friends at a gas station. A man pulled up next to their car, and complained about the loud music but they were playing. He pulled out a gun and fired ten shots into their cars. He hit jordan three times and killed my only son. I found myself asking god, how could this happen . How did he allow this to happen to me, to my family and jordan . I prayed to god and found the strength ticket forgive. I stood up for families like mine. I stood up for families in maria, georgia who were terrified that they will send their kids to school and never see them come home. I stood up for the teams who sent cheques to the paris and, florida, i stood up for mothers reading messages from their children that red, if i dont make it home, i love you and thank you for everything youve done for me. I made a promise to my community that i would act. I promised that i would take that sense of protection, that love a mother has for her son, and i would use it for my community, for the American People. I promised i would work with the president on his policies are right for georgia, and stand up to him when they are not. And i am proud of our progress, i am proud to have passed bills to protect our communities. I am proud to have written a bill that was signed into law by President Trump, a bill that protect our veterans. But i am not proud of the president s actions that bring us here tonight. Four months, we have carefully and methodically explored the facts. I have listened to our witnesses, ive heard from the brave men and women who have dedicated their lives and service to our country, but at home and abroad. I am greatly saddened by what we have learned and i am forced to face a solemn conclusion, i believe the president abused the power of his office, putting his own interests above the needs of our, nation above the needs of the people that i love, and i serve. And for, that i must vote my conscience, and i do so with the heavy heart and a grieving soul. This is not why i came to washington. I came to washington full of hope empowered by my community to serve in congress, and it is an honor to carry out this work every single day, to make sure that no one else goes to the same thing that i have. But after this vote, i will continue to champion the ideals this country is still the need, to stand up for the safety and security of our communities, and the fight for an america i prayed that my son jordan would be proud of when i yield back the balance of my time. The gentility look. Mr. Stanton. Thank, you mister chairman. Ive been in public life for two decades. And it is not lost on may these are the most consequential votes that i will undertake. Throughout the impeachment process, i have way three questions that are central to whether we must use the power to impeach and recommend removal of a president. Did the president grossly abused his power . Did his actions harm our nation . And if unchecked, is the president likely to repeat his behavior . Clear and convincing evidence shows that the answer to all of these questions is yes, President Trump grossly abused his power. He withheld aid to our ally at war until that all i agreed to help him damage a top political opponent. The ukraine plot put our elections in our democracy at risk, and it helped Vladimir Putin in russia. One predictable matt got the president away, he fired them and he smeared them and he used to political henchman outside the official lines of diplomacy to avoid getting caught, but he did get caught. A courageous Public Servant blew the whistle and only once, the president was repot exposed, did he release the aid Congress Approved to hope its all i guess and aggressive russia. The present revealed his consciousness of guilt when he ordered the coverup, the most sweeping obstruction of congressional investigation in our nations history. When Congress Lawfully subpoenaed witnesses that could help us find the truth, why Congress Lawful subpoena documents that might point the finger at him, the president ordered his administration not to reorder a single, one of the excuses what has used for congress arent a disgrace to the constitution into the rule of law. Ukraine plot defection that followed our gross abuses of power. Both part of our National Security and the integrity of our democracy than what worries me most is that every sign, every sign points to the nearest certainty that if we allow him, the president will continue to violate the law. Just last, night he said abuse of power is not even a crime. He has repeatedly said that his powers were on bounded and unlimited. He has claimed, quote article two allows me to do whatever i want, unquote. These are the words of a president who does not respect the constitution, one who believes there should be zero checks on his power. Make no mistake, the president will certainly abused his power again, threatens the very soul of our nation. This president must be impeached and he must be removed, not because hes been offensive or because of policy disagreements, impeachment is necessary because this president does not believe the law applies to him because he poses a clear and present danger to our democracy. I asked my colleagues to my fellow americans, where is the line . And i submit that if we do not impeach the president for this conduct, we will send the message, there is no line. Right and wrong will forever blend together, and corrupt use of power from the executive branch, become acceptable and unchecked. I served as mayor of one of the largest cities in this country. If i had concocted a scheme to hold with a public funds to help with my own election i will be charged with public crime and the truth is if this were anyone else republic trump, he would be in a jailhouse and not the white house. We have a duty to protect our democracy. Well get to the framers of our constitution, we owe it to the men and women who spill their own blood defending, it we owe it to our children and generations to, come we have a responsibility to every single american to ensure that our government of the, people for the people and by the people shall not perish from the earth. Mister chairman, i yield back. Gentleman yields back. It is dean. As members of congress, we are interested with a generational duty, a duty to ensure that we leave our grandchildren with the constitution as strong or Even Stronger than our predecessors gave us. I want to tell you about a conversation that took place the week of july 25th, but it is not the one youre thinking of. This was a quiet moment between a leader and to me, just a freshman on the floor. I sought out a larger cummings and sat down next to him. He looked up into the gallery and he said, not, only 300 years from now, your ancestors will remember you are here. We are only here a short while. Make sure what we did hear matters. As first corinthians tells us, now we see through a glass month later i am beginning to see face to face what our recently departed chairman cummings meant. What we do here today will matter for generations. He saw a broader horizon. Now, this immense constitutional responsibility vastness by our Founding Fathers requires us to the side that are president Donald J Trump has purposefully and perilously abuse the power entrusted to him by the people. The evidence shows the president s wrongdoings. They are as clear as they are dangerous. He has abuse the power of his office, as president , for personal gain, including his corrupt scheme to win reelection. He has betrayed our nation and his oath by asking Foreign Governments to interfere with our elections. When he was caught, he obstructed congress, blocking our constitutional investigation at every turn, telling executive Branch Agencies and witnesses to defy subpoenas, and even in the midst of these investigations, he called on a third foreign power to interfere in the upcoming elections. The president s ongoing pattern of conduct threatens our most precious rights as americans, rights to choose our own leaders and hold them accountable. In George Washingtons farewell address, he warned against the insidious whiles of foreign, influence the people who are constantly, awake he, said since one foreign it was one of the most painful foes of a republican government. We cannot allow this president to reach his hands in the hands of foreign leaders into our ballot boxes, because for us to maintain our faith in this country, the democratic process is as important as the result. Some suggested that our actions, this historic call for impeachment were based in dislike or even hatred of a single man. They are not. This is not about punishment or hate. It is about love. It is about love this country. It is about protecting this country and our precious constitution, from all americans yet to come. No one wishes to be where we are today, but this is where we are called to be. Todays about the congressional oath i swore and we all swore to faithfully discharge the duties of our office. I favorite uncle walter was a catholic priest. Years after his death, i swore my oath of office on walters bible. My first grandchild, abe, age seven, held from below as i placed my hand and pledge my faith and allegiance to the constitution. All those daily prayer wash over me, they graphics us the work of our hands, he would, say are from the gravelly that moment, of accepting the mantle of those who came before us and striving to protect the promise of the constitution for generations weve yet to inherit it. It is in our hands now. Nine people have off these hallowed halls. Few of us remember their names. Someday two we will be gone and forgotten, yet, what we do here will not. It will matter for decades and centuries to come. It will matter to my children, my grandchildren, and to yours. It will matter to a democracy Battle Tested and hard one, what we are only as strong as those willing to stand up and defend it, and defend the aspirations, of the constitutional promise of this country. These are the moments that the finance, and determine whether the United States would become less free or more perfect. The grand horizon is in our hands now. May god grant us success. Our forefathers demanded and our grandfathers deserve it. Does the gentlelady of back . With that i. Yield the gentlelady yields back. Miss pow. I did not have the privilege of being born into this country. When i was 14, my mother brought my sisters and i for one or in search of freedom and opportunities, and this is not just my story but it is the story of so many of the people that i represent in floridas 26th district and all over the country. Many of us have experienced firsthand the political corruption in our countries of birth. We understand the corrosive effect to this corruption, and the abuse of power by authoritarian leaders both on the left and on the right that destroyed democratic institutions. Many of my constituents fled the brutal dictatorship of cuba and venezuela they have chosen the economic, social and political potential those countries for the benefit of those who hold power. The United States is picking up freedom, a place where anyone can get a fair shot but, also where even the most powerful are held to account. It is why i feel so fortunate to raise my children in this great country, and it is because of the opportunity that i received doesnt immigrant, and how i feel about this country, that has led me to give, back run for congress, and come here to fight to reduce the cost of health care, protect our communities from gun violence and act on climate change. I did not come to impeach the president , but this president has violated the rule of law. The evidence is overwhelming the president withheld military aid, approved by congress, and leverage the white house meeting, in order to extract a personal and political favors from a Foreign Government. You see, what the president wanted was the announcement of an investigation into his political opponent to help in his reelection campaign. One of our most fundamental rights, the right to a free and Fair Election, was threatened. In an attempted to cover, up he instructed his administration to ignore legally binding congressional subpoenas, and he has done all of this to benefit himself personally, not to benefit the country. It is undeniable that this president has violated his oath of office, abused his power and obstructed congress. This is a clear and present danger to the future of our democracy. A system of government that was a beacon of freedom for a family in for so many that have come here, tonight, i ask all americans to put their personal affections and their political affiliations aside and consider the Long Term Health of our democracy. It is what i have tried to do and review and all the information in the testimony this before this committee. I know that there are patriots and proud americans in my district and all over the country, republicans, democrats, independents, some born here and others who chose to make their home here in america, who agree that we must put our democracy and constitution first and who will come together in the most difficult times because we are all americans, the issue we face now as a country, as a result of this president s conduct is bigger than party, and we all agree that we cannot allow a president , this president or any future president to abuse the power of the office. We cannot accept a president who says America First, but really puts his own interest for the country. We cannot accept a president who makes a show of hugging the American Flag but hes obstruction of Congress Takes a big black sharply on article one of the constitution. Therefore, understanding and having sworn an oath to a constitution on making a decision on impeachment, it is a determination that i must make for our children. It is for this reason that i must vote with my conscience, for my country and for my children in support of these articles of impeachment. That is my duty as a member of this body, and that is my duty as a mother. I yield back. Miss escobar. Thank, you chairman. In moments of great tragedy, americans have always found a way to come together and to be unified. Not as republicans, not as democrats, but as americans. One only need to look at the great tragedies that we have faced together to see that bearing out. Natural disasters, terrorist attacks, our innumerable mass shootings, we have always found our way to come together again. And those of us who are elected leaders, who had the Great Fortune and responsibility to be elected leaders, we have a unique obligation to help americans find their path to unity. We have a unique obligation to ensure that america triumphed over her challenges. My, friends today we face one of those great tragedies, and it is a moment of truth for us. We have witnessed, i know repeat, we have witnessed the president of the United States betraying his oath of office, inviting Foreign Countries to interfere in our elections, and in of his wrongdoing to ensure the American People do not know about it. This is not the first time that he has sought a foreign interference. In fact, we only need to look at 2016, rewind the tape and recalled him saying russia, if youre listening, he invited a foreign adversary into our 2016 elections and he has not stopped sense. We witnessed him standing on the white house lawn, as he called on ukraine and then he called on china to also interfere in our elections, this time the 2020 elections. This is why this is called an ongoing crime, a crime that is in progress. This also is not the first time that we have seen him obstruct congress. I was shocked to hear the Ranking Member deny that the president of the United States has obstructed congress when we have witnessed it time and time and again, id unprecedented levels. The president of the United States as withheld documents, making sure they do not see the light of day, prohibited witnesses from coming before congress, he is even vowed to fight all the subpoenas, desperately attempting to keep americans in the dark. He has even engaged in witness intimidation, but what is your worst of the president who violates his oath or is the other tragedy, the tragedy of unable to choose to look the other way, turn a blind eye and explain this wrongdoing away. They tell us to ignore what we have witnessed with our own eyes, ignore we have heard with our own ears. When we should be unified in this moment, unifying and confronting what the framers warned us about, what our Founding Fathers feared, and to stand up for what brave patriots fought and died for. Instead, we have seen attacks against those patriots. We have seen a blanket denials of the truth, and we have seen something absolutely terrifying, we have seen russia be wildly successful, not just in the 2016 election but in dividing us as americans. My, god weve even seen the highest elected officials in this land parroting the same conspiracies filed by putin, at the same russian talking points. This selling out of America Stores all intended to protect one man, donald trump. Donald trump is not for america, donald trump is for donald trump. As leaders, we should be unified in protecting our public, a democracy that is far more fragile than we ever understood. I feel that the president was right when he warned us that he could shoot someone in the middle of fifth avenue and not be held accountable by his supporters. If we do not proceed with impeachment, i am afraid that our democracy will cease to exist as we know it. Earlier, some of our republican colleagues talked about how perilous, how politically perilous this moment is, and two of our freshman frontliners know what that better than anyone. But, that speaks to the pursuit it takes to do the right thing, i prayed tonight that all of our colleagues have the courage to do the right thing, to defend our beloved america id upholder oath of office. Mister chairman, i yield back. The gentlelady. Back the witness of the, hour the committee will stand in recess until 9 am tomorrow morning, i wish time we will call it the resolution for impeachment for consideration. The committee now stands in recess